when he walks into the pentagon as the new secretary of defense, he will be the first vietnam veteran to have that job. he still carries shrapnel with him from combat, where he earned two purple hearts. >>> now to the weather, as another big storm pounds the plains and the midwest. you can see it is a huge system, as it sweeps across the country now from west to east. it has dumped more than two feet of snow outside denver. it's caused blizzard conditions through kansas, missouri, oklahoma, and they're having a genuine, classic winter evening in chicago. that's where we find weather channel meteorologist eric fisher on michigan avenue tonight. eric, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. we're not seeing those up to hurricane-force gusts that we had across the plains that wreaked havoc yesterday, but we are seeing that same heavy, wet snow that's left over 100,000 people without electricity. in wichita this morning, they were digging out from the snowiest february on record. >> that's a lot of snow. i'm not used to this. >> reporter: while aerials from oklahoma reveal the lan